You call it chaos, we call it family

Reality Check

There is nothing worse than coming home from a wonderful vacation just to have reality bitch slap you directly in the face. That’s exactly what happened to us this past week. I love writing about our adventures and fun family time but this isn’t one of those experiences haha this one is real life and it sure isn’t all roses.

Not only did I have the post holiday blues this week as we tried to get back to life after our trip, but Thursday marked the end of my glorious summer at home recovering from surgery so back to work I went. I was already broke and was barely able to buy groceries on my way home that day but payday was the next day so I wasn’t too worried, until payday hit and I got a horrible surprise. No paycheque. None. Turns out my employers, who had previously agreed to use my sick and vacation time to cover my time off, had only used my sick time so I was not paid for the last 3 weeks I was off. I was devastated. There I sat with kids to feed, bills to pay, back to school shopping to do, Briggs upcoming birthday to buy for and absolutely no money to do any of it. Oh and let me add, it was also my birthday, happy freaking birthday to me. I instantly felt horrible and guilty for taking a trip I had saved all year for. Brad did his best to reassure me that we would figure it out and that it wasn’t my fault and even staying home wouldn’t have changed this, but as we cancelled weekend plans that the kids were looking forward to, I felt like the worst parent on earth. All birthday cheer had left me and I had to force myself to be excited to blow out candles because I didn’t want the kids to feel worse. I was thankful we only had Dylan and Robyn for the next few days (Briggs and Reegan were in BC visiting their dads family) it meant less food to buy and easier activities to find to do on a budget. Brad tried to ease the stress by suggesting a walk around our towns nature trail. Sounded like a good way to take our minds off our troubles, little did we know it would add more trouble.

Dylan climbed up in a tree and was to afraid to get down on his own. After trying to coax him down for quite awhile, we were all frustrated with him. Brad started climbing trying to help him down and Robyn wasn’t far behind him trying to show Dylan if she could do it he should be able to as well. Suddenly I heard Brad yell out that something had stung him and immediately Robyn started screaming. I thought it was due to being afraid she was going to get stung too but as I got closer and Brad started yelling for help, I realized Robyn WAS getting stung! I grabbed her out of the tree and as I was hurrying away I was stung on the back and behind my ear. I carried Robyn back to the vehicle and she screamed the whole way. As I got her in the backseat I started counting her bite marks. She had them everywhere! We later found a grand total of 9! Dylan was still stuck in the tree so I drove down to the tree and he was able to jump down onto the roof of our Tahoe. Turns out Brad was also stung a few times but Dylan was not. Go figure. We got home and Robyn was still crying and in pain. She stripped her clothes off and I instantly noticed a rash and bumps all over her stomach. I knew it was an allergic reaction and we threw her in the vehicle and rushed to the ER in the next town 10 minutes away. By the time we got there the rash had spread all over her body. The nurses rushed her straight into a room and immediately gave her a shot of epinephrine and hooked her up to an IV.

Turns out Robyn is deathly allergic to wasps and was in severe anaphylactic shock. We had no idea. The doctor told us we were lucky we got her there when we did, if we had waited any longer it probably would have been tragic. After she was in the clear, our friend Jessie came and picked me and Dylan up and Brad waited at the hospital until Robyn could be released. They came home at 3am.

We all slept in the next day thanks to our stressful and eventful night before and Robyn was excited to see her rash was gone so she invited our niece Ryan over to watch movies and Dylan went bridge jumping with our nephew Ace. About an hour later Robyn came in complaining of being itchy and we noticed the rash was starting again. I had Brad draw a circle around it and as it starting spreading past the pen marks we knew she needed to get back to the hospital. Away Brad and the 2 girls went. Good thing they went because Robyn was having another anaphylactic reaction and had to have more epinephrine and they gave her pills to prevent it from happening again. This time they only had to stay for about an hour and the rash went away pretty quickly. Robyn was feeling better so the kids planned sleepovers with their cousins but by later that evening I could tell Robyn was absolutely exhausted. She still went for her sleepover haha

Sunday we took the kids to the city to visit dad. Bad idea. They were so exhausted they were miserable, mostly Robyn. Everything was making her angry and Dylan was doing his best to push all her buttons, and mine. By the time we got home everyone was mad and needing to eat dinner and go to bed early. Especially because Dylan was going to work with Brad the next morning. About midnight Dylan came in to our room complaining of an upset stomach. For the next 2 hours while Brad slept peacefully, I dealt with a very sick little boy. I got texts, phone calls, and hollering for help from the other end of the house. He even sent Robyn in to get me and of course, all this activity kept her awake the whole time. Finally he actually started throwing up which caused his nose to bleed everywhere but I knew it would be some relief to his upset stomach. 3am we finally got to sleep.

Bright and early Monday, after 3 hours of sleep and still not feeling great, Dylan got up and went to work for the day! What a crazy kid haha He made it through the work day but as soon as he got home he fell asleep and we had a hard time waking him up for dinner.

We finally made it to bed Monday night at a decent hour and so SO thankful we had a relatively normal day. I woke up Tuesday morning happy to see the ridiculously stressful weekend over and determined to get through the week and figure out our finances. It’s times like this that I’m so happy I have the resilient, understanding children I do and such a wonderful and caring husband that has all the patience in the world. Like I said, life isn’t always roses but I know I can get through pretty much anything with my tribe. This weekend certainly proved that.

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Welcome To The Richards!

We are a bit of a yours, mine and ours situation just light on the "ours" part haha we do our best to juggle our hectic life and it makes for some pretty hilarious writing material. Hope you enjoy our adventures as much as we do!